Sunday, January 27, 2013

State of bicycling 2013

You already know that Jill and I like bicycles? What is new: the bike nut community is growing. Here are a few
observations from this month (being January, where high temperatures
have been regularly less than freezing.

1. There are 2
boys (I believe in junior high) that ride their bikes to school every
day. And I mean every day. I took the above photo from the comfort of my
living room because it was about 10°F outside (also because I didn't want him to think I'm a creep). Both guys rode through
the 1" of snow on the road the next day.

2. At 8:15am on said sorta snowy day, I was the 4th set of tracks on the gravel path I use for commuting.

3.
We went to our matriculated-adopt-a-student's housewarming party along
with a number of his friends. His new to him fixed gear bike was much
admired by several friends. A young lady said she dreams of owning a
Peugeot like this. As we were leaving (dark, cold night), another young lady was unlocking her bike and to ride to a dance party.

What's the dream bike for these co-eds? This is where my hope for mankind is slightly dampened. A young man said Cervelo. Are you paying attention, Mr. Colnago????

4. Moonlight rides continue through the winter. I skipped this version for the housewarming (and we probably rode about as far as the moonlighters did), but still 7 people rode in the dark with sub-freezing temperature.

Our backyard looks like this right now. Somehow, all our bigger storms have been warmer this winter, so we get lots of rain and tiny amounts of snow. And cold days.

Finally, during the sermon at church today, I counted the number of people chewing gum. Out of an estimated 150 people in my field of view, there were 9 gum chewers.